Yaretca Ramos, who survived two hurricanes in Puerto Rico, gives a tearful interview to KTLA after arriving to LAX on Sept. 30, 2017. (Credit: KTLA)
Students who attended college in Puerto Rico, surviving two hurricanes on the Caribbean island and U.S. territory, made an emotional arrival to Los Angeles International Airport Saturday night.
John Fenoglio reports for the KTLA 5 News at 11 on September 30, 2017.
Jewelry, watches, cash and high-end purses are missing from the home of former Lakers coach Byron Scott following a burglary of his Hermosa Beach residence on Saturday, police said.
Former Lakers coach Byron Scott speaks with player Metta World Peace during a game against the Orlando Magic in March 2016 at Staples Center. (Luis Sinco/Los Angeles Times)
A patio door was found to have been forced open and an estimated $200,000 in valuables was reported missing after police arrived around 1:30 p.m., said Hermosa Beach Police Sgt. Robert Higgins.
Scott’s house is the latest to be hit in a series of burglaries in the Los Angeles area targeting celebrities including Nicki Minaj, Alanis Morissette and former Lakers Nick Young and Derek Fisher. In Morissette’s case, thieves took possessions worth $2 million.
Higgins said investigators don’t know whether the burglary of Scott’s house is related to any others.
Read the full story on LATimes.com.
Emergency responders from the L.A. County Fire Department return home after helping search and rescue efforts in Mexico. (Credit: L.A. County Fire Department via Twitter)
Search and Rescue teams from the Los Angeles County Fire Department returned home Friday after helping relief efforts in Mexico following the deadly earthquake there and in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria struck and battered the island.
It was the first time the department had “two teams working in two different parts of the world,” the agency said in a news release.
One search and rescue team was deployed to Mexico on September 20 after a magnitude 7.1 earthquake devastated the central region of the country, leaving at least 355 people dead so far, according to the Associated Press.
That team — equipped with 62,000 pounds of specialized tools and medical equipment — brought 67 emergency responders and five canines to search for survivors of the quake, the department said.
A member of the L.A. Fire search and rescue team sent to Mexico walks alongside a canine from the department. (Credit: L.A. County Fire Department via Twitter)
It also assisted in the “demobilization process” at the request of Mexico’s government, the department said, transferring equipment such as saws and generators to the Mexican Red Cross.
Just three days later, another search and rescue team from L.A. County Fire was sent to Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria hit. That natural disaster has left millions without electricity, a short supply of water and a death toll many say is expected to rise.
Family and friends greet emergency responders returning home from Mexico on Sept. 29, 2017. (Credit: L.A. County Fire Department via Twitter)
The team deployed to Puerto Rico had 27 members and was assigned as a “water rescue” team that searched rural areas, did “welfare checks on unaccounted for citizens” and identified infrastructure damage, the department said.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency requested the deployment to Puerto Rico and it was approved by the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services.
Meanwhile, the team sent to Mexico was “activated” by the United States Agency for International Development, the department said.
“LACoFD is very proud to be represented on the world stage by these brave, skillful and devoted public servants,” the department said.
An American citizen was found guilty Friday of conspiring to aid al Qaeda and to bomb a U.S. military base in Afghanistan.
Muhanad Mahmoud Al Farekh, 31, could face life in prison after a federal jury Brooklyn, New York, convicted him on nine counts, including conspiracy to murder U.S. nationals and to use a weapon of mass destruction. His sentencing is set for January 11.
U.S. Marshals stand outside U.S. Federal Court in Brooklyn during the arraignment for Muhanad Mahmoud al Farekh, and two Queens women, on April 2, 2015. (Credit: Victor J. Blue/Getty Images)
Federal prosecutors claimed Al Farekh was a member of the terror organization from 2007 to 2014. Court papers detailed his alleged participation in the January 2009 attack on a U.S. military installation in Khost, Afghanistan, where a truck armed with explosives blew up at the gate of the base and a second truck was prepared to do more harm.
“The trial evidence showed that he was involved in a variety of terrorist activity,” acting Assistant Attorney General Dana Boente said after the verdict was rendered.
Al Farekh was born in Houston and grew up in Dubai. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, he attended the University of Manitoba in Canada between 2005 and 2007, and there became friends with co-conspirators — and later fellow al Qaeda members — Ferid Imam and Maiwand Yar.
According to court documents, Al Farekh left to train in Pakistan after he watched videos encouraging violent jihad and online lectures by the now-deceased al Qaeda leader Anwar al-Awlaki, who “inspired numerous terrorist plots against Western targets.”
The plan in the 2009 Afghanistan attack, court records show, evidently was for the first truck to explode at the gate to the base while a second truck, following closely, carried “significantly more explosive ordinance” and was intended to detonate inside to “maximize casualties and damage.”
The second vehicle got stuck in the crater caused by the explosion of the first and did not detonate. Several Afghan nationals were injured, and a U.S. soldier was knocked to the ground. Eighteen fingerprints collected from packing tape used to bind together the explosive materials matched to Al Farekh.
The gruesome murder of a transgender teen in Missouri has some wondering why the three main suspects arrested aren’t facing hate crime charges.
Texas County authorities have charged Andrew Vrba, Isis Schauer and Briana Calderas with the first-degree murder of 17-year-old Ally Lee Steinfeld, whose family had reported her missing earlier this month.
Briana Calderas, Isis Schauer and Andrew Vrba are pictured, from left to right, in photos released by the Texas County Sheriff’s Office. (Credit: CNN)
According to police reports, Vrba, 18, admitted to killing Steinfeld and burning her body.
Schauer and Calderas allegedly helped Vrba hide Steinfeld’s body. Schauer and Calderas told police Vrba claimed he stabbed the victim’s genitals multiple times and gouged her eyes out.
All three are being held in jail without bond and have yet to be arraigned. Their lawyers did not immediately respond to CNN’s requests for comment.
The grisly details of Steinfeld’s death have prompted some to call for the suspects to face hate crime charges.
“There couldn’t be a more vivid example of someone being targeted because of their gender identity than being stabbed in their genitals,” said Dru Levasseur, director of the Transgender Rights Project for Lambda Legal, a nonprofit working organization for the civil rights of the LGBTQ community.
“I’ve heard complete outrage from trans people about how they (authorities) could not prosecute this” as a hate crime, Levasseur told CNN.
According to the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), which tracks violence against transgender people, Steinfeld is the 21st transgender person who has been killed in the United States in 2017.
“HRC is also deeply concerned about the investigation into her death,” said HRC legal director Sarah Warbelow in a statement to CNN.
“As details of her brutal murder are confirmed, it seems likely that anti-transgender animus played a role,” Warbelow said. “This broader epidemic of violence against the transgender community, often motivated by hatred, must come to an end.”
Police have not released a motive for Steinfeld’s murder, and the prosecution is not pursuing hate crime charges.
Steinfeld’s family filed a missing person’s report on September 14, though they hadn’t heard from the teen since “approximately September 1,” according to police reports obtained by CNN.
Police went to the Cabool, Missouri, trailer home of 24 -year-old Calderas after Steinfeld’s family said Calderas, Vrba and Schauer, both 18, were the last people to be with the teen. The family had contacted the trio, the report says, but believed they were being lied to about Steinfeld’s whereabouts.
Steinfeld’s family, police and the suspects still refer to her by her name given at birth and use male pronouns, but her family says she referred to herself using female pronouns.
In an interview with detectives, Schauer denied knowing where Steinfeld was located, but said Steinfeld “had been in a physical altercation with Vrba on September 3, 2017.” After the altercation, Schauer said, Steinfeld left and no one had seen her since.
But when police interviewed Vrba, he confessed to murdering the victim. “Vrba stated that he had to kill Steinfeld,” the police report says, “and he planned to do so by poisoning him, but Steinfeld would not drink the poison so he used a knife instead.”
While the details were left out of the police report, a Texas County deputy said Vrba described for police how he stabbed Steinfeld in the living room of Calderas’ trailer, and told them that he, Schauer and Calderas took the body outside to burn it.
When investigators searched the property, the report says, they found human remains in a burn pile and a garbage bag by the chicken coop that contained “numerous human bones and burnt trash.”
Calderas confessed to police she tried to help hide the body and told them where the murder weapon could be found.
Calderas and Schauer both told police Vrba had told them about gouging out Steinfeld’s eyes and stabbing her in the genitals “multiple times, and that he had bragged about the murder and went into detail on how the murder took place.”
All three are facing first degree murder charges, armed criminal action, and abandonment of a corpse. A fourth suspect, 25-year-old James Grigsby, is facing lesser charges for helping the others hide Steinfeld’s body. His attorney also did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment.
In a statement, Texas County prosecutor Parke Stevens Jr, defended the decision to not pursue hate crime charges by pointing out a first-degree murder charge carries the “highest and most severe form of punishment available in the State of Missouri.”
In Missouri, hate crime charges cannot be added to a first-degree murder charge, only lesser charges like assault, harassment or property damage.
“First-degree murder is punishable by death,” said CNN legal analyst Joey Jackson. “The hate crime law operates to ‘enhance’ punishments regarding certain crimes — upon a showing of hateful motivation.”
Since a first-degree murder charge is punishable by either death or life imprisonment, Jackson said, a hate crime charge cannot apply to a murder.
Additionally, it could complicate the job of prosecutors trying to convict defendants.
“A prosecutor generally does not have to prove motive,” he said. “In hate crimes, you must. Therefore, they make the job harder of a prosecutor.”
Jackson said of the prosecutor’s decision, “It’s the right call — and only call, under the law.”
But it shouldn’t matter whether the hate crime charge wouldn’t enhance the sentencing, Levassuer said. “Regardless of whether the choices are life in jail or execution, having a hate crime prosecution matters.”
To him, it’s about addressing the bigger question of why transgender people are so often targeted and the victims of violence.
“There’s not enough attention being paid to this issue,” Levasseur said.
“Its an opportunity for the state of Missouri to take a stand and say, ‘Even though it wouldn’t make a difference in terms of sentencing, we are going to implement this (hate crime) law because we recognize this is horrific and that transgender people exist,'” he said. “We need to be working on looking at the larger picture.”
On the eastern side of Orlando, in a heavily Puerto Rican community, donations are pouring in from people worried about family on the Caribbean island ravaged by Hurricane Maria.
A donation and coordination center has been set up to send much-needed food, water and supplies to Puerto Rico. A coalition of local Hispanic groups, CASA (Coordination, Support, Solidarity and Aid) has set up shop at a banquet and meeting hall.
Hurricane survivors receive food and water being given out by volunteers and police on Sept. 28, 2017, in Toa Baja, Puerto Rico. (Credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Across Orlando, donations can be made at Harbor Community Banks, local businesses and the banquet hall — Acacia’s El Centro Borinqueno.
Water, non-perishable food, cleaning supplies, toiletries, baby wipes and diapers are filling the parking lot and the hall. Volunteers are sorting, packing and loading shipping containers.
One shipping container already has been shipped and several more are planned to go next week.
Organizers are getting the message out through social media, local TV and radio stations. Several people sit around a table and work the phones, e-mails and social media to coordinate donations coming in from across Florida and other states.
Volunteer Henry Cordero — who owns a video production company, receives a phone call from a business in Clearwater — just outside of Tampa, offering to donate seven pallets filled with batteries, car batteries and car inverters. Others in the room cheer.
Other companies have donated 12 long-distance radios and 700 batteries — cellphone communication is almost nonexistent on the island. The coalition hopes the radios will help first responders or smaller communities talk to each other.
Cordero says others have been donating money, which is sorely needed since the cost of shipping the supplies is not cheap.
Relief supplies are sorted into boxes in San Juan, Puerto Rico on Sept. 30, 2017. (Credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
“We are a very resilient community, we’re going to rise and we are going to rise stronger,” said volunteer Angel Torres, a chaplain with the Orlando Police Department.
Throughout the day, people drop off donations in the banquet hall parking lot.
Even survivors from Hurricane Irma, which affected central Florida two weeks ago, donated unused supplies.
Luz Merced dropped off bottles of water and newly purchased supplies. She hopes it won’t take too long to deliver the items to the island. Her family in Puerto Rico is in need of the supplies like most devastated by Hurricane Maria.
Millie Soto donated, saying, “I want to help my people, I want to help my island.”
Soto says her family is doing well, so far — despite their damaged homes.
A successful businessman who did not want to be identified donated $20,000 worth of supplies, said Jose Colom, who has volunteered for days working outside in the parking lot accepting donations.
The man told Colom “he cannot sit at home and be with his family — he is so blessed and sees all the suffering of all the people in TV.”
Colom, who owns parking lots in downtown Orlando, has not heard from his mother or father, Leonor and Jose Fernando, who live in Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico.
“Please call me, if you are alive call me — that’s all I want,” he pleads, tears filling his eyes.
Across town in a warehouse district, pallets filled with water bottles, paper goods and nonperishable foods draw volunteers sorting and packing the items.
Randy Ross, a political activist and former Orange County chair for President Donald Trump’s campaign, started organizing donations for flooded Houston residents following Hurricane Harvey after seeing the photo of elderly residents sitting a flooded facility.
Named for the highway in Orlando, the organization, “I-4 to Texas” partnered with AmeriCorps and the Army National Guard to ship five loads of supplies to Texas. Later, they turned their attention to shipping supplies to the Florida Keys after Hurricane Irma and now they are focused on Puerto Rico.
A street is left covered in debris in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, on Sept. 30, 2017.(Credit: Ricardo Arduengo/AFP/Getty Images)
Ross says currently they have enough supplies to fill 15 shipping containers, scheduled to go to Puerto Rico on Tuesday.
“What I’ve learned … is how huge and substantial the Hispanic community is in central Florida,” and how they have come together no matter their background, said Ross.
The cost of the shipping containers and all the shipping cost have been donated, said Ross. His biggest concern is how the goods will be distributed once they arrive in Puerto Rico.
Now called “I-4 for Puerto Rico,” the effort has partnered with faith-based organizations and with the Pentecostal Church of God International Movement, which has 600 churches on the island.
A local pilot has already flown several flights to the island, delivering medical personal with medical supplies. Donations are continually coming in: A university in Ohio is sending batteries and flashlights, and a church in Georgia is send tons of nonperishable food.
Ross hopes through his political connections and with a distributor in Puerto Rico his shipments won’t get caught in the bottleneck at the ports on the island.
One thing Ross says he keeps reminding people, “Puerto Ricans are Americans and this is what we need to do — we need to help other people. So, put your ideologies aside and let’s focus on helping the people in Puerto Rico.”
Much more work must be done to meet Puerto Rico’s critical humanitarian needs after Hurricane Maria, the US territory’s top official said Saturday, while also emphasizing that the federal government is fulfilling his every request — striking a conciliatory tone minutes after President Donald Trump lambasted a mayor who criticized Washington’s response.
“We need to do a lot more in order for us to get out of the emergency,” Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló said in San Juan. “But the other thing that’s also true is that the administration has answered and has complied with our petitions in an expedited manner.”
Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rossello speaks during a news conference June 15, 2017, in Washington, D.C. (Credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Eleven days after Hurricane Maria began to pound Puerto Rico as a Category 4 storm, millions in the US commonwealth remain without regular electricity service, and many have limited access to gas, cash and running water. At least 16 people died there as a result of the storm, the government has said.
Earlier Saturday, Trump — who plans to visit the island Tuesday — used Twitter to criticize San Juan Mayor Carmen YulÃn Cruz and the “leadership ability” of some in Puerto Rico who “want everything to be done for them when it should be a community effort.” Cruz earlier had criticized the distribution of aid and said the feds needed to do more.
Rosselló, while updating reporters on recovery efforts, trod carefully on the back-and-forth.
“I don’t feel that (Trump’s) message was sent in general,” Rosselló said. “I am committed to collaborating with everybody. This is a point where we can’t look at small differences. We can’t establish differences based on politics.”
Rosselló acknowledged many of the island’s 3.4 million citizens could leave for good, and more people could die, if conditions don’t improve soon.
With most of the power transmission grid destroyed, more than 95% of customers are without regular electricity service. Only 10.7% of the island’s cell phone towers are working. People are waiting for hours in line at gas stations and thinly supplied grocery stores. Some communities are isolated by phone outages and blocked and damaged roads.
German Rodriguez looks through a window from inside his destroyed house after Hurricane Maria, in Aibonito, Puerto Rico, on Sept. 29, 2017.(Credit: Ricardo Arduengo/AFP/Getty Images)
“My invitation … is to recognize what the important issue is: helping the people of Puerto Rico. Everything else is fodder to the side,” he said.
Rain is aggravating the situation and on Saturday night, authorities began to evacuate several hundred residents who live very close to a stressed dam in northwestern Puerto Rico.
Trump’s Twitter attack on Cruz came a day after she stepped up criticism of the federal response, saying aid wasn’t being distributed efficiently.
Wearing a black shirt that read, “Help Us, We Are Dying,” she appeared Friday night on CNN to say the situation was desperate.
“People are drinking out of creeks here in San Juan,” she told CNN’s Anderson Cooper. “You have people in buildings, and they’re becoming caged in their own buildings — old people, retired people that don’t have any electricity.”
“We’re dying here. We truly are dying here. I keep saying it: SOS. If anyone can hear us; Mr. Trump can hear us, let’s just get it over with and get the ball rolling,” she said.
Saturday morning, Trump responded.
“The Mayor of San Juan, who was very complimentary only a few days ago, has now been told by the Democrats that you must be nasty to Trump,” the President tweeted.
“Such poor leadership ability by the Mayor of San Juan, and others in Puerto Rico, who are not able to get their workers to help. They want everything to be done for them when it should be a community effort. 10,000 Federal workers now on Island doing a fantastic job,” his tweets read.
Cruz told Cooper on Saturday night that she is not a Democrat, though she shares some of their values.
“I have no time for small politics or for comments that don’t really add to the situation here,” she said.
Puerto Rican National Guardsmen load a helicopter with food and water to bring to hurricane survivors in San Juan, Puerto Rico on Sept. 29, 2017.
(Credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Brock Long, the administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, told CNN on Saturday that recovery efforts hinge on good communication and coordinated efforts.
“The bottom line is we’ve had a joint field office established for numerous days in San Juan and what we need is for the good mayor to make her way to the joint field office and get plugged into what’s going on,” he said when asked about the President’s tweets about Cruz.
Long said he was focused on getting aid sent to 11 FEMA distribution centers throughout the commonwealth and getting more set up.
Long said he will be in Puerto Rico for several days early next week.
Cruz told Cooper on Saturday that she works out of a building that has two FEMA envoys and she feels as though there is sufficient cooperation.
Cruz and her family are staying at the Coliseum in San Juan, along with more than 600 people. They’re sleeping in cots and eating the same food as everyone else after their house flooded.
For many in Puerto Rico, trying to get the basics, like fuel, has become a grueling, all-day affair.
More than 710 of the island’s roughly 1,110 gas stations were working as of Saturday morning, according to the Puerto Rican government’s website for information on the recovery.
But stations often are closing in the evening, ahead of a government-mandated 9 p.m. curfew designed to limit looting. And lines in the day are long.
In LoÃza, residents waited for more than 10 hours Friday for gas. The town’s deputy mayor, Luis Escobar, summed it up as a broken chain. “No fuel, no work, no money.”
Without gas or transport, people can’t get to their jobs. Without work, there is no money to buy necessities.
After spending an entire day waiting for fuel, the next days are spent trying to get food and other basic supplies, residents say.
Hurricane survivors receive food and water being given out by volunteers and police on Sept. 28, 2017, in Toa Baja, Puerto Rico. (Credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
There’s also a cash scarcity. Many of Puerto Rico’s businesses, supermarkets and gas stations will accept only cash because credit card systems are down.
At least half of all bank branches remain shuttered, in part because they can’t get enough armored trucks with gas, or truck drivers, to deliver cash safely. Some bank branches are limiting the amount of daily withdrawals.
Recovery efforts this weekend may be hampered by rain.
Puerto Rico is under a flash flood watch until late Sunday, as between 2 and 4 inches of rain could fall, the National Weather Service said. Low-lying areas are at risk for flooding as drainage pumps aren’t functioning at full capacity.
“(The rain will be) a problem — a lot of the rivers and streams in Puerto Rico have yet to recede to normal levels,” CNN meteorologist Allison Chinchar said Saturday.
Rosselló and FEMA officials gave the following updates on recovery efforts Saturday:
• All phone landlines are now working.
• The government still is in the process of buying a few thousand crates of private-sector goods — such as food meant for grocery stores — that have been sitting idle at the Port of San Juan. Companies that can’t access the port and deliver the goods will be forced to sell the items to the commonwealth, which will distribute them, Rosselló said.
• About 10,000 people are in roughly 230 shelters.
• About half of the island’s customers have regular water service.
• Millions of meals and liters of water are being sent from ports to 11 distribution points throughout the island, where local governments can pick them up for distribution. In some cases, FEMA or other agencies are delivering by helicopter to isolated communities.
• Fifty-one of the island’s 69 hospitals are open. Nine of the open hospitals have regular electricity service; the rest are powered by generators.
About 45 miles from San Juan, in the town of Florida, fish swim in the streets that are still flooded after the hurricane.
Though the town is nowhere near the coast, the storm backed up a nearby creek, causing the flooding and forcing families from their homes.
8 numbers that show how Maria has laid waste to Puerto Rico
Despite the total collapse of utilities, residents are cleaning up and clearing debris from roads.
Officials from FEMA arrived in town Friday, and residents peppered them with questions: When will supplies come? How long will it take?
“FEMA’s not going to forget about this community,” the agency’s Caroline Cuddy told CNN’s Ivan Watson. “FEMA’s not going to forget about the needs that they have, and we’re going to work with our people back in our field office in San Juan about what we’re going to do.”
Puerto Ricans reacted harshly on Saturday to President’s Trump’s tweets that leaders of the hurricane-ravaged Caribbean island “want everything to be done for them when it should be a community effort.”
Several Puerto Ricans contacted by CNN stood up for San Juan Mayor Carmen YulÃn Cruz, who apparently provoked the Trump tweet with a call for more aid, and many said the Puerto Rican community at home and abroad is already working together.
San Juan Mayor Carmen YulÃn Cruz speaks to the media during hurricane relief efforts on Sept. 30, 2017. (Credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
“I’m amazed that he has the gall to say Puerto Ricans expect everything to be done for them,” said Abner Breban of Atlanta, who started a Facebook group to raise money for relief. “They are working exhaustively to lift themselves up. We are citizens. We pay taxes. We serve in the military.”
“It is a community effort,” Evelyn Torres said at a fund-raising event in the Bronx. “It is a humanity effort.”
Speaking from San Juan, Renee Acosta said, “If he’s not here, he shouldn’t be criticizing the community efforts.”
“Hamilton” creator Lin-Manuel Miranda, whose parents moved to New York from Puerto Rico, took his shot on Twitter, saying: “You’re going straight to hell, @realDonaldTrump. No long lines for you. Someone will say, ‘Right this way, sir.’ They’ll clear a path.”
The President stirred things up with a series of tweets Saturday from his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, where he is spending the weekend.
He seemed to be responding to Cruz’s comments on Friday night on CNN, when she said,”We’re dying here. We truly are dying here. I keep saying it: SOS. If anyone can hear us; Mr. Trump can hear us, let’s just get it over with and get the ball rolling.”
Trump tweeted on Saturday morning, “The Mayor of San Juan, who was very complimentary only a few days ago, has now been told by the Democrats that you must be nasty to Trump… Such poor leadership ability by the Mayor of San Juan, and others in Puerto Rico, who are not able to get their workers to help. They want everything to be done for them when it should be a community effort.”
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to reporters on the South Lawn of the White House, on Sept. 29, 2017. (Credit: Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
And late in afternoon, he fired again at Cruz: “Results of recovery efforts will speak much louder than complaints by San Juan Mayor. Doing everything we can to help great people of PR!”
But Puerto Ricans defended Cruz.
“Carmen has been going door to door helping her own community,” said Griselmarie Alemar, who lives in Connecticut and has family in Carolina, Puerto Rico. “She has said that the resources are there but the issue has been the excessive time consumed in logistics.”
She also hoped Trump will see “something else besides the airport” in San Juan when he visits on Tuesday because “it’s even worse in the rest of the island.”
“I think Trump is wrong in criticizing the mayor,” Acosta said. “I mean, the mayor is reacting to a very chaotic situation in Puerto Rico. Unless you’re here you don’t really know what’s going on. … I guess he likes to play this Twitter game.”
At the fund-raiser in New York City, Bronx Borough President Robert Diaz Jr. also lashed out at the President for tweeting instead of taking action.
“What Donald Trump did with those statements today is that it confirmed everything that people were thinking about him,” Diaz said. “And it’s just that he … doesn’t care, or he’s just sophomoric, and just wants to continue to have these Twitter wars. There’s no time for that.”
Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico 10 days ago, killing at least 16 people. Federal Emergency Management Agency official Alejandro de la Campa said only 5% of electricity had been restored in the island. He said 33% of the telecommunications infrastructure is back up and close to 50% of water services have been restored.
Several Puerto Ricans also said the island didn’t receive the same kind of response as Houston and Florida, which were struck by hurricanes Harvey and Irma.
“I’m pro-Trump, but these comments surprised me very much,” said Gabriela Gonzalez of San Juan. “He didn’t say those comments for the people of Florida or Texas and we are as Americans as those people.”
“He didn’t have this reaction for Harvey or Irma,” said Breban in Atlanta. “But now he’s blaming the victim. Why?”
On Saturday afternoon Trump sent out complimentary tweets about Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rossello, Rep. Jennifer Gonzalez-Colon of Puerto Rico and Kenneth Mapp, governor of the US Virgin Islands.
Rossello publicly struck a conciliatory tone in remarks earlier in the day, saying the federal government fulfilled all his requests, though there’s still plenty of humanitarian work to be done.
Human remains found behind a church in Charlotte, North Carolina, are those of Ashanti Billie, a Virginia woman who earlier this month went missing from a military base in Virginia, authorities said Saturday.
“It is with deep regret that I inform the community that Ashanti Billie has been located, deceased, in Charlotte, North Carolina,” said Martin Culbreth, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Norfolk division. “I, along with the entire investigative team, offer our most sincere condolences to the Billie family, especially Ashanti’s parents Brandy and Tony. Our thoughts and prayers are with you.”
Ashanti Billie is seen in a photo provided by the FBI.
Billie, 19, had been missing since September 18, when she didn’t show up for work at a Blimpie sandwich shop on the Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story in Norfolk, Virginia, or culinary classes at the Art Institute of Virginia Beach.
The Mecklenburg County Medical Examiner’s Office and the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department identified Billie’s remains, which were discovered Friday behind a church more than 300 miles from where she went missing.
Her disappearance
Shortly before 5 a.m. on September 18, Billie drove her cream-colored Mini Cooper through Gate One at Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek, where she worked as the Blimpie assistant manager.
Just 30 minutes later, her car was captured on surveillance camera leaving the base. The FBI says it doesn’t know whether Billie was behind the wheel, and that nobody saw or heard from her after that.
Hours after her disappearance, her cell phone was recovered in a dumpster off the base in a residential area of Norfolk.
Five days later, on September 23, her car was discovered in a quiet cul-de-sac in the nearby Ocean View neighborhood.
Following a two-week search for Billie, her remains were discovered in Charlotte. CNN affiliate Spectrum News reported they were found behind East Stonewall A.M.E. Zion Church.
‘We will not rest’
The FBI had offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to Billie’s location. Blimpie announced it would match the reward, increasing the total to $20,000.
Following confirmation Saturday that the remains belonged to Billie, authorities vowed to keep investigating her case.
“Our community should know that our work does not end here. Now our mission is to bring justice for Ashanti, and we will be relentless in our efforts to find who did this to her,” said Culbreth. “We will not rest until the person who robbed Ashanti of her life, her promise and her future is held fully accountable under the law.”
Authorities are asking anyone with information regarding Billie’s death to come forward.
A man died after he fell or jumped from a private helicopter Saturday afternoon off the Malibu coast, authorities said.
Pictured is the Malibu Pier, which is about a mile from the site where a man was found Saturday after plunging from a private chopper into the ocean. (Credit: Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
Lifeguards from the Los Angeles County Fire Department reached the man about 1:20 p.m. about a mile from the Malibu Pier, said Supervising Dispatcher Bernard Peters. He was pronounced dead at the scene, he said.
It’s unclear whether the person jumped or fell, Peters said. The investigation is ongoing.
This report will be updated as more information becomes available.
Read the full story on LATimes.com.
A second Wisconsin teenager accused of stabbing a classmate to please the fictional Internet bogeyman Slenderman has accepted a plea deal, her attorney said Friday.
Morgan Geyser appears in a photo released by Waukesha, Wisconsin police. (Credit: CNN)
Morgan Geyser, 15, will appear in court Thursday, October 5, to plead guilty to a charge of attempted first-degree murder, attorney Donna Kuchler told CNN.
However, the plea deal stipulates Geyser was not criminally responsible due to her mental health, Kuchler said. She will be committed to a mental hospital operated by the state Department of Health Services, Kuchler said.
Slenderman stabbing case: When can kids understand reality vs. fantasy?
CNN affiliate WTMJ reported that the deal calls for a maximum of 40 years in a mental institution. There’s no minimum sentence.
Prosecutors could not be reached for comment Friday.
Geyser and Annisa Weier were both 12 in May 2014 when they allegedly stabbed a 12-year-old schoolmate in a Waukesha park 19 times and left her to crawl to her own rescue. The victim has since recovered from her injuries.
CNN does not generally name minors who are charged with crimes, but it does make exceptions if the minors are charged as adults. Both Geyser and Weier were charged as adults.
Weier, 15, pleaded guilty in August to attempted second-degree homicide due to mental illness or defect in the stabbing as part of a plea agreement. Then, in September, a jury said Weier was mentally ill when the attack occurred.
Anissa Weier appears in a photo released by Waukesha, Wisconsin police. (Credit: CNN)
Weier will spend at least three years at a mental hospital before she can petition for her release, her lawyer, Maura McMahon, said at Weier’s hearing. A judge could also order a commitment of up to 25 years, she said.
One of the girls encountered the name of Slenderman on a website known as Creepypasta Wiki, authorities said. One of the suspects allegedly told police that Slenderman is the site’s supposed leader, and to climb into his realm, a user must kill someone.
During the trial, a psychologist testified that Weier developed a condition called shared delusional disorder, in which she came to share Geyser’s delusion that Slenderman was real, CNN affiliate WISN reported.
Geyser was diagnosed with schizophrenia a few months after the assault, CNN affiliate WISN reported.
Monty Hall, the television icon who was co-creator and the first host of “Let’s Make a Deal,” died at his home in Beverly Hills on Saturday due to heart failure, his daughter, Joanna Gleason, has confirmed to the New York Times. He was 96.
Monty Hall arrives at the 3rd annual Jerry Herman Awards at the Pantages Theatre on June 1, 2014 in Hollywood, Calif. (Credit: Chelsea Lauren/Getty Images for the Pantages Theatre)
Hall was born Maurice Halperin in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, on Aug. 25, 1921.
The game show host began his career in regional television in the 1950s and early 1960s on several children’s shows including “Cowboy Theater,” “Fun In the Morning” and “Video Village,” according to IMDB.
Hall then moved on to host network game shows such as “Split Second,” “Masquerade Party” and “Beat the Clock,” but it was “Let’s Make a Deal” that made Monty Hall a household name.
The Game Show Network ranked Hall fourth on its list of the “Top 10 Game Show Hosts of All Time,” according to IMDB.
Hall was inducted into the American TV Game Show Hall of Fame in 2007.
Hall was also honored for his work as a humanitarian, receiving the Order of Canada for his philanthropic work on behalf of the Muscular Dystrophy Association and Variety Clubs International, according to IMDB.
Check back for updates on this developing story.
A plane that was headed to Los Angeles International Airport from France made an emergency landing in Newfoundland after experiencing engine damage, officials said Saturday.
The Air France flight diverted to Goose Bay airport, where there is also a Canadian Forces Base, according to the airline.
One of the plane’s four engine had “serious damage,” but no further details about the damages were released.
The plane landed safely about 3:40 p.m. local time and passengers were being helped by officials at the scene.
“The regularly trained pilots and cabin crew handled this serious incident perfectly,” Air France officials said in a statement.
The airline is working to reroute the passengers to Los Angeles and elsewhere.
“Hamilton” creator Lin-Manuel Miranda did not mince words in his message to Donald Trump following the President’s Saturday morning Twitter attacks on San Juan Mayor Carmen YulÃn Cruz.
Lin-Manuel Miranda speaks outside the Pantages Theatre on August 16, 2017. (Credit: Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images)
“You’re going straight to hell, @realDonaldTrump,” the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright tweeted at the President. “No long lines for you. Someone will say, ‘Right this way, sir.’ They’ll clear a path.”
“She has been working 24/7. You have been GOLFING,” Miranda added in a follow-up tweet. “You’re going straight to hell. Fastest golf cart you ever took.”
“Did you tweet this one from the first hole, 18th hole, or the club? Anyway, it’s a lie. You’re a congenital liar,” he wrote in response to a third tweet from Trump, adding with a link to a donation site for a Latino nonprofit.
Miranda has been active in his efforts to try to help the hurricane-ravaged island.
“Puerto Ricans, that’s 3.5 million American citizens, just like Texas, just like Florida,” Miranda said Friday. “I know there’s a tendency for fatigue because we’ve just been through two hurricanes. And we can’t be fatigued when it comes to our fellow Americans.”
The Broadway star, whose parents moved to New York from Puerto Rico, said he is working on a new song to raise for disaster relief.
“It’s a love letter to Puerto Rico,” he said.
Trump went after the San Juan mayor in a series of early morning tweets for criticizing the White House’s hurricane relief efforts in Puerto Rico, accusing her of “poor leadership” and suggesting that the island’s residents are not doing enough to help themselves.
“The Mayor of San Juan, who was very complimentary only a few days ago, has now been told by the Democrats that you must be nasty to Trump,” the President tweeted from his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, where he is spending the weekend. “… Such poor leadership ability by the Mayor of San Juan, and others in Puerto Rico, who are not able to get their workers to help. They want everything to be done for them when it should be a community effort.”
Trump touted the federal government’s response on the island, saying the workers there are doing “a fantastic job.”
YulÃn Cruz countered in an interview on MSNBC that the only goal right now is to save lives, adding that she “has no time for distractions.”
“This isn’t about me, this isn’t about anyone. This is about lives being lost if things do not get done properly real quickly,” she said.
Harrowing stories are emerging about two massive rockfalls at Yosemite National Park that killed one man and injured at least two others this week.
A British tourist died Wednesday while climbing the park’s El Capitan monolith, and U.K. media reports quoted relatives saying the man was killed while trying to save his wife.
Another fall occurred Thursday. The wife of the man injured during that rockfall described the tense moments in which debris blanketed their vehicle and sent them and others scrambling for cover.
Rachel Evans was with her husband, Jim, who was driving, and her sister and brother-in-law when massive chunks of rock separated from El Capitan and dropped hundreds of feet to the ground below, Evans told KSEE.
Read the full story on LATimes.com.
Two people were fatally shot in Lancaster early Saturday, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department officials said.
The incident was reported about 1:45 a.m. along the 43000 block of 6th Street East.
Responding officers found the victims lying in the street, each with at least one gunshot wound to the upper body, officials said in a news release.
Both victims, a male and female described as being in their early 20s or late teens, died at the scene. Authorities did not provide the relationship between the two victims.
Multiple witnesses at the scene were being interviewed by detectives.
No weapons were found at the scene, and no suspect information was available.
Anyone with information about the shooting can call 323-890-5500.
A surfer leaves the water at the Huntington Beach Pier in this undated file photo. (Credit: Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
A recurring foul odor that some residents say causes headaches and nausea is a serious issue and needs more focus, says a Huntington Beach city councilman who wants a special committee to be formed on the issue.
“Not enough progress is being made to address the source of the odor,” Councilman Billy O’Connell said in a statement proposing the item.
The city said in a post last week on its website that the odor wasn’t believed to be “an immediate life safety issue.”
The South Coast Air Quality Management District is leading an investigation.
Read the full story on LATimes.com.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Saturday that the US has direct lines of communication to North Korea, and his immediate goal is to “calm things down” in the international standoff over the country’s nuclear weapons program.
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson (left) walks by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi before a meeting at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on September 30, 2017.(Credit: Andy Wong/AFP/Getty Images)
Tillerson was responding to a question at a news conference in Beijing about whether the North Koreans actually want to talk before completing their weapons development program.
“We are probing, so stay tuned,” Tillerson replied. “We ask, ‘Would you like to talk?’ We have lines of communications to Pyongyang. We’re not in a dark situation or a blackout. We have a couple of direct channels to Pyongyang. We can talk to them. We do talk to them. Directly, through our own channels.”
Tillerson also said the administration’s goal with respect to North Korea is peace and stability.
“We’ve made it clear that we hope to resolve this through talks,” he said, emphasizing the principal objective “is a peaceful resolution.”
“I think the most immediate action that we need is to calm things down,” Tillerson added. “They’re a little overheated right now, and I think we need to calm them down first.”
Asked if that included toning down President Donald Trump’s fiery rhetoric, Tillerson said: “I think the whole situation is a bit overheated right now. I think everyone would like for it to calm down.
“Obviously, it would help if North Korea would stop firing off missiles,” he said. “That would calm things down a lot.”
Tillerson was in Beijing for a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Foreign Minister Wang Yi to discuss North Korea and other issues, as well as to lay the groundwork for Trump’s planned visit to China in early November.
Companies are stepping up to rebuild Puerto Rico.
Damaged homes are seen as people deal with the aftermath of Hurricane Maria on September 29, 2017 in Camuy, Puerto Rico. (Credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
As of Friday, corporate donations have reached $24.1 million for Hurricane Maria relief efforts — about triple the amount that had been contributed four days ago, according to an estimate from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
A spokeswoman for the Chamber of Commerce said she expects corporate donations will continue to grow as companies see the urgent need in Puerto Rico and as rescue and relief work shifts into long-term recovery.
The storm, which slammed Puerto Rico more than a week ago, is expected to leave behind billions of dollars in damages.
A series of natural disasters across North America over the past month could have tested the limits of corporate giving. Businesses pledged over $224.9 million to relief efforts following Hurricanes Irma and Harvey, according to a recent estimate from the Chamber.
Nevertheless, major companies have continued to donate in the wake of Maria.
Related: Who will help Puerto Rico?
On Friday, JPMorgan Chase announced a $500,000 donation to organizations working on the ground, like the Community Foundation of Puerto Rico and the local Boys and Girls Club. Verizon on Friday upped its donation to $5 million from $1 million for the island.
Healthcare companies Kaiser Permanente and Abbott are each contributing $1 million to relief efforts. Starbucks, which has 500 employees on the island, will give $250,000 to recovery and rebuilding in Puerto Rico, and Google and its employees have pledged $1 million.
Meanwhile, Coca-Cola has tripled the amount of money it’s donating to disaster relief in the wake of Hurricane Maria and the earthquakes in Mexico. The company will donate another $4.3 million to help with recovery. It had previously announced a $2 million contribution to the American Red Cross for Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, and that it would match employee donations up to $100,000.
Amgen, a biotechnology company, has pledged $3 million to support urgent Hurricane Maria relief efforts in Puerto Rico. It has also committed up to an additional $2 million for longer-term rebuilding.
Related: Here’s what big companies are giving for Irma relief
Some businesses are lending a hand by providing services and in-kind donations, like food and supplies.
AT&T and T-Mobile are waiving cell phone charges in impacted areas, Western Union will offer free money transfers to Puerto Rico from the mainland U.S. as soon as the network on the island is stable. JetBlue is flying in emergency supplies on one of its airplanes.
Royal Caribbean’s humanitarian mission is rescuing about 2,200 people from San Juan, and will evacuate up to 1,000 more from the U.S. Virgin Islands.
In addition, Orlando Bravo, the Puerto Rican-born co-founder of private equity firm Thoma Bravo, promised to give up to $10 million to the cause through the Bravo Family Foundation. Bravo’s donation isn’t included in the Chamber of Commerce’s tally of corporate donations.
Bravo’s fund, Podemos Puerto Rico, will be “focused on providing direct and targeted relief to communities in Puerto Rico that have been difficult to reach and lag in aid,” according to a press release.
The statement said the foundation has already contributed $2 million to the fund and it’s earmarked an additional $8 million to dole out over time.
SATURDAY "GAYLE ON THE GO!"
Watcha' Doing? Here are some Saturday "Gayle on the Go!" suggestions!
Enjoy!
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Lucas Oil Off Road Expo
Fairplex Exposition Complex
1101 West McKinley Avenue
Pomona
fairplex.com
offroadexpo.com
The 2017 Lucas Oil Off-Road Expo Powered by General Tire is an impressive collection of off-road companies, parts, equipment, gear, action and experts all gathered in Pomona for the weekend.
Fans can experience the dynamic world of off-road at ride alongs, racing demos, celebrity appearances, live music, industry media events and product giveaways all weekend.
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Free!
11th Outstanding Art of Television Costume Design Exhibition
Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising Museum & Galleries
919 South Grand Avenue
Los Angeles
Tuesday through Saturday, 10am-5pm
213 623 5821
fidmmuseum.org
We can see the costumes of our favorite television shows at the 11th Outstanding Art of Television Costume Design Exhibition in downtown Los Angeles at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising.
Among the costumes from 25 television shows, the costumes that have won Emmy Awards, among them the Netflix production THE CROWN.
You can see the Emmy winning work at this FREE exhibition at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in downtown Los Angeles only until Saturday, October 7th.
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Free Admission!
Cuba Is
Annenberg Space for Photography
2000 Avenue of the Stars
Los Angeles
http://ift.tt/2fB6jbn
“CUBA IS” at the Annenberg Space for Photography explores aspects of Cuba not easily accessed by foreigners, and sometimes not even Cubans themselves!
There are more than 100 photos featuring subjects ranging from defiant youth to the hard partying children of the 1%, and the underground system of sharing digital content.
The exhibit is FREE!
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The First Mandrill Babies in More Than 40 Years!
Los Angeles Zoo and Botanical Gardens
5333 Zoo Drive
Los Angeles
323 644 4200
lazoo.org
The Los Angeles Zoo welcomes two Mandrill babies. They are the largest of the monkey species and one of the most colorful.
The female baby was born on August 3, 2017 to five-year-old mother, Juliette. The male baby was born on August 17, 2017 to four-year-old mother, Clementine. The first-time mothers came to the L.A. Zoo from Parc Zoologique de La Palmyr in France in April 2016 to be paired with the first-time father, six-year-old Jabari, as part of a Species Survival Program (SSP) to strengthen the gene pool of this vulnerable species.
We can watch them as they learn to navigate their new habitat. This is a rainforest-like environment that supplies the group with plenty of trees, logs, and plant life to explore during the day and aerial lofts and ledges where they sleep at night.
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Marty Stuart’s Way Out West: A Country Music Odyssey
The Grammy Museum at L.A. Live
800 West Olympic Boulevard
Los Angeles
213 765 6800
grammymuseum.org
This is the last weekend to learn about singer-songwriter Marty Stuart at the Grammy Museum exhibition “Marty Stuart’s Way Out West: A Country Music Odyssey.” This exhibition inspired by the Grammy winner’s new release, “Way Out West.”
We can explore the history of country music and learn how California inspired many country artists of yesterday and today.
All artifacts come from the private collection of Marty Stuart.
The special exhibition closes Sunday.
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Orange County International Auto Show 2017
Anaheim Convention Center
800 West Katella Avenue
Anaheim
autoshowoc.com
You might call this the first official auto show of the season. The Orange County International Auto Show offers more than six-hundred of the hottest new rides, concepts, exotics, alternative fuel vehicles and more.
In addition to looking at new vehicles there are plenty of test drive opportunities, so be sure to bring your valid driver license.
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34th UNCF Walk for Education
Leimert Park Village
4330 Degnan Boulevard
Los Angeles
http://ift.tt/2x42uGY
This is a signature fundraising event for the United Negro College Fund. It’s the 34th UNCF Walk for Education. The 5K walk is a fun, family-friendly event that includes a day of entertainment, activities for the youngsters, vendor booths, and more!
UNCF is the nation’s largest, most successful and most comprehensive education-assistance organization devoted to minority students.
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2017 Los Angeles International Ukulele Festival Torrance Cultural Arts
James Armstrong Theatre
3330 Civic Center Drive
Torrance
Kalakoa.com/ukulele
This Los Angeles International Ukulele Festival. It celebrates the little four stringed small guitar-like instrument that’s been a part of the music scene for more than one-hundred years.
Your skill level doesn’t matter! There are workshops for beginners and well as performances courtesy some of the best ukulele players in the world in Torrance at the Cultural Arts Center.
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Free!
36th Annual Watts Towers Day of the Drum Festival
Watts Towers Arts Center
1727 East 107th Street
Los Angeles
Wattstowers.org
An all-star lineup of world-class musicians, singers, and dancers will take you on a musical journey at the 36th Annual Watts Towers Day of the Drum Festival.
In addition to the music, the festival features a variety of food, from creole cooking to handmade pies and shaved ice.
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Make it a GREAT Saturday! Gayle Anderson, KTLA 5 News.
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HOW TO GET ON THE “GAYLE ON THE GO” list!:
PLEASE SEND YOUR INFORMATION TO: Gayle.Anderson@KTLA.com Please be sure to provide video with your request. The deadline for your information is EVERY Tuesday 5pm.
Don’t forget you can always post your information on the KTLA Community Calendar. Here’s the link: http://ift.tt/2ejr74z
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